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I remember very early in the morning this day 5 years ago, I received a phone call, a call that changed my mood for the rest of the day. The caller suggested I tune in to a particular news station and hear first hand what was going on.

I refused. I insisted the caller tell me themselves what it was I should find out. The caller gave up and simply said “Michael Jackson died last night.”

I didn’t believe it. And neither did I have the courage to tune in to the news station to verify it either. I just blanked out that piece of information from my mind, and decided to face my day as if nothing had happened.

The office was buzzing with the news when I got there, I could see quite clearly that there was at least some truth in what I had earlier heard. But then I still did not react…I was in denial.

Then I got a call from The Gambia, it was from my elder brother who had travelled there at the time. Why was he calling? It was to tell me exactly the same thing, “Did you hear…” At this point I was sitting in front of a TV set and taking in the same piece of news, without any outward show of emotion.

And then my dad walked in. He took a good look at me and asked “How are you holding up?” It was all I needed. I broke down and I cried.

You may wonder ‘why would every member of my family be placing a call to me about this event?’ You guessed right, I was a great fan of MJ in the family and everyone knew that. So everyone just felt I needed consolation…imagine that!

But actually, I did.

I guess everyone had their various reactions to MJ’s death. For some it was good riddance to bad rubbish, to some it was a matter of ‘so he died, duh?’ And yet to some, it was earth shaking. To me it was like, “How could someone like MJ just drop dead?” It was so surreal.

Michael was an enigma. Everyone had an opinion about him from good to bad to downright ugly. Though opinions about his life has always been diverse, a fact that everyone concedes is that he was a great singer, entertainer and performer. No one argues that whether a hater or a lover.

But all the same, everyone still felt his exit from the world scene and like it or not, the world still feels his absence five years down.